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Topic: 69 TA (Read 13533 times)

Hello all! I'm a newbie here and wanted to say hi and share my Trans Ams.I always said if you can't afford a real one, you can always have the next best thing. This is my 69 TA Tribute. It under went a bare metal rebuild about 10 years ago. The original 350 is gone and replaced with a 400, not a Ram Air IV....YET! It sits under an original Trans Am hood. It still has the original hydromatic 2 speed tranny that is about to be replaced with a TH350. The interior is still just about perfect. The radio slot has beed mutilated but the entire carrier is sitting in my garage waiting to be installed. Other than that, it don't need anything else. Hope you enjoy the pics. I'll post more as I finish it off with the little details.

Thank you! I need to get a few more years between 69 and 02...LOL.One of each anniversary year would be nice, and a 68 that I want to go completely custom with. Don't know if I would go with a beefed up 455 for complete raw power, or drop in an LS. I got some time to make that decision though...lol.

My passion for Firebirds goes back to before high school. I've owned several over the years. My first brand new car when I was 21 was a white 88 Trans Am. Since then I've had 2 78's and a 68 Firebird that were all projects that went unfinished. I attached pics of a gold edition I saved from a junk yard that was going to part it out. I thought it might be a Y88 but after getting her home I found that it wasn't. Bummer! It still had the factory gold honeycomb wheels (I think that was the only year that they were solid gold without the silver face), Hurst 4 speed, a straight rust free body, and one gold tinted t-top. I searched high and low for another gold t-top but never found one. The build sheet was still under the back seat! Her 6.6 was strong after I rebuilt her! I did a lot of work to the interior with a new headliner and carpet. I replaced a few panels and re-pained all the panels and trim. She started looking really good. I regret not keeping her and restoring her but I got a good deal on selling her and got a brand new Harley Street Glide, can't beat that in AZ!

I spent the weekend taking care of more little details. This time it was the halogen headlight breakers and fuses. The previous owner decided that the best place for them was on the fender well with the wires crossing over on top of the radiator shroud. Not very clean looking to me. It was an eye sore, I had to find another place for them.

Then I found the perfect place! There's a ton of room on the front of the core support and everything will be hidden under the filler panels. The driver's side was the first to be moved. Of course, just like any quick fix, it was time consuming but I caught a break. There were plenty of holes in the core support that were just the right size, so that meant no drilling! Some wires pulled out of their connectors due to a poor wiring job so those had to be fixed. The other side will have to wait since I need to extend the hot lead and have no wire.

The new TH350 is installed and I'm not disappointed with the racing clutch and shift kit. It's got a nice firm shift through all the gears. I spent today finishing up moving the halogen breakers and fuses to the front of the core support, and cleaning up the engine bay a little bit. I'm very pleased with the results. I still have to get a hose clamp tool to hook up the power steering cooling lines with the factory style hose clamps.

really nice work. i bet that heater hose loop has you tweaked. does it require a new heater core.

Thanks. I haven't had to do anything with the heater since most of the engine work was done when I got her. She was solid and mechanically sound so a majority of the work was already done. I'v been converting her to a Trans Am.

Looks good....been back and forth over whether to put that cooler on my 69....

I wasn't sure how well the cooler worked or if it made a big difference. I've seen discussion on other forums and the common opinion was that it only benefits with road racing, so it's really a matter of choice for street driving. It was standard equipment on a Trans Am so I put it on. It's easy to install, it replaces the return line.

This weekends project, out with the old, in with the new. I pulled the old dash panel off to get ready to install the new one. There were a couple issues I needed to address first. Some of the dash lights aren't working, the heater controls take a lot of force to move them, and the blower doesn't always come on.

The old dash panel really don't look too bad compared to the new one except for the butchered radio slot. I think I can make it look better and try to get something for it.

Why do people have to f**k s**t up so bad? How am I supposed to install a radio now? This is going to take some creative thinking. I'm leaning towards getting an original factory radio, even if I don't hook it up, and put a blue tooth system in the glove box. But it would be nice to have a working factory AM/FM radio!

This could explain why the lights aren't working...

I have no idea how all the grit and grime got under the dash but I found out why I could hardly move the heater levers. A little brake cleaner, a rag, and a little grease and they move like new. I'm confident that the cleaner connection will always turn on the blower. I chewed up the lever knobs pretty bad trying to get them off the levers, and the face plate was all faded and scratched up so I got those things on order with a new circuit for the gauges.

Yeah, just finished doing what I can to tidy up my 69's dash insert....radio area and clock blank hacked up.....fixed both. I'm going to have to run some ground wires to replace some of the damaged copper ground straps on the back of the dash as well. Don't know what some people are thinking.

Good to see I'm not the only one struggling with those same issues. I too have a new, well newer, dash and at some point in the future am going to have to decide what to do with the big hole for the radio. One year only so used ones are very expensive, and then they are 50 year old pieces of junk for the most part. I replace the circuit too and all the light will work when connected to power. Man! I'm so far away from putting that back together, depressing! Good luck and i look forward to following your progress for my own reference. Thanks for doing that. Joe

I have hacked up my share of dashes installing aftermarket radios. Crutchfield had a kit to cover anything up. It is amazing at how much dirt and dust can accumulate over the years. I think that has a lot to do with the nasty "old car smell". People will restore a car, maybe reuse the interior or at least seat foam and to me it still smell moldy and stinky.

I'm sure everybody who works on projects like these has to deal with these issues! LOL I've been looking online for some original radios and there's a lot of AM radios out there for reasonable prices which isn't a bad way to go if you're only using it for looks. But finding a working AM/FM radio is a shot in the dark and costs a small fortune. During my searching I came across an original clock! I was all over that till I saw the price, $500! I'll be leaving the cover panel in for now. What I would prefer is the stacked gauges though, those are nice. I've seen new reproductions online but they all come as part of a package with the tach and the whole cluster for around $750.

On a somewhat good note, I noticed that the dash wasn't cut away around the radio, it was actually just bent back out of the way to make room for whatever they needed all that room for. I straightened it up as best as I could. It's still not usable in that condition but at least I have a guide to use as a template to fab a new support. It's gonna take some thinking but it's definitely possible.

This is the radio that came with the car but still requires cutting the dash. That's not something I really want to do. It looks new and has an auxiliary input for an iPod which is cool. Maybe I mount this one in the glove box and run a cord under the carpet to the console for my iPod or phone.

One of the hardest things for me to find when i did my resto was the radio. I looked for about 3 years off and on until i got lucky. I didn't want to pay a ridiculous price. Finally found one on cl from a guy who bought a 76 TA new, and took the radio out as soon as he got the car. It was practically brand new with a complete harness. And he didn't price it like it was gold.

I have to look, but somewhere I have two center sections of the dash from 67/68 Camaros. I don't think they are the same as the 69 but the radio area may be. I'll have to go digging in my shop attic and see what I have.

Keep at those small projects. That's how you need to tackle these cars, one project at a time. Looking real good.

From what I've seen 69 was a one year only for the radios. Unless you cut that bar others won't fit. I don't even know if say a 68 or 67 would fit if you did cut the bar. Anybody have experience with that?

I have to look, but somewhere I have two center sections of the dash from 67/68 Camaros. I don't think they are the same as the 69 but the radio area may be. I'll have to go digging in my shop attic and see what I have.

Keep at those small projects. That's how you need to tackle these cars, one project at a time. Looking real good.

The radio section might work with some modification. They both used Delco radios so it's possible. I'd have to find pictures and do a side by side comparison and get some measurement.

From what I've seen 69 was a one year only for the radios. Unless you cut that bar others won't fit. I don't even know if say a 68 or 67 would fit if you did cut the bar. Anybody have experience with that?

That's correct, 69 was a one year only radio and they're not easy to find. I've seen so many for sale advertised for Camaro and Firebird but the model number shows otherwise. Not everything was interchangeable between the 2 but I don't know what the differences are between the 2 radios. I don't want to cut the bar, I'm trying to get it back as original as possible.

So here's the template I cut for the radio. It looks like it will work. I'll have transfer it to metal, get it to fit right, and figure out how I want to attach it to then dash. Either sheet metal screws or a couple tack welds. The radio I have is so close to fitting the dash panel. So close yet so far.

I got everything cleaned up and put in the new dash. That's a good looking dash! The circuits were definitely the problem with the gauges. They all work now but one of the bulb sockets got busted. It fell off the work bench and I backed up and stepped on it. Just my luck! It's always something isn't it? LOL! Oh well, I decided to order a new lighter housing and heating element since the old ones were rusted didn't work. Another little detail checked off. Once those parts come in the dash goes back in the car, minus a radio. I needed new heater control knobs too but those can go on after the dash is installed.